GoPro granted patent for square-profile action camera housing

GoPro has been granted a patent for a small square camera housing, which eschews the rectangular shape its cameras have taken thus far in favor of something resembling the Polaroid Cube. According to the patent, which was recently published by the USPTO, the square design would allow for additional mounting options, with every orientation being the same.

The patent was filed on January 4, 2014, and details a camera housing with four sides that are the same size to allow for 'a plurality of orientations relative to the housing body'. The openings on the camera will be designed to accommodate all of those possible orientations; a button is positioned on the side opposite the lens, and there's a small display.

The square camera featured in the patent would be an action camera akin to the current GoPro lineup, according to the patent, being tailored for use in outdoor adventures like snowboarding and biking, among other things. The existence of a patent does not guarantee that the product will enter production, however, and a GoPro spokesperson has confirmedthat there are no new product announcements at the moment. The spokesperson also said the square camera design has been in the works since 2011.

Comments

This camera badly needs image stabilisation and at least 5X zoom. I wouldn't consider it an action camera until optical stabilisation is implemented. Image stabilisation is what's holding me from buying this cam.

Raw? Are you expecting much more detail or dynamic range from the tiny sensors used in action cams? I think you'll be disappointed. And you'll lose the presumably large amount of distortion compensation they've built in to the JPGs...

Strangely enough, taking a look at the latest Phase One 80MP camera for drones, and it already looks close to infringement with just a lens stuck on to the exact same looking cubed go-pro housing... what are they thinking copying such a unique cube design?!

The article does not mention whether the patent in question is a DESIGN patent or a UTILITY patent. Design patents are easy to come by, since they may be just ornamental. A utility patent on the other hand would be a much bigger hurdle for competitors to engineer around. If this is a US patent (and I assume it is), then it would be a simple matter to visit the USPTO website for these answers, but I just don't have the ambition for it. I have a GoPro, but my nephew uses it more than I even did. Furthermore, the only "live-action" camera of this sort that presently interests me is the one that is shaped like a ball, with numerous independent cameras installed along the sphere's surface. You throw the camera-ball high into the air and it takes a snapshot. Now that could be cool (?). Certainly moreso than a square GoPro. At least to me.

the link to the USPTO is embedded in the first sentence of the article. It's a utility patent, and turned around quickly. What interests me is that GoPro did not even attempt follow USPTO rules of form prohibiting shading drawings. Perhaps I should attempt to patent the automatic rubber stamp machine the USPTO apparently uses these days.

The examiner should have issued an immediate Section 103 rejection on this Application for lack of novelty and non-obviousness.

In my opinion, this patent is very easily challenged, very easily circumvented, and therefore commercially worth a lot less than one might originally think.

As to the USPTO "rubber stamp", I suspect much has to do with how experienced the Examiner was in this case, and how crowded the "camera enclosure" Art Group is. All I can tell you is that none of my (4) utility patents ever sailed this easily (or this quickly) through the USPTO. Of course, none of them were camera enclosures either.

With a little thought and a day's research, I'm pretty sure I could come up with reasonably compelling examples of prior art sufficient to seriously challenge or outright invalidate this patent.

The novelty of the claim, assuming it was examined correctly, cannot be that the camera is square or cube shaped. The independent claims recite several details about how the camera is mounted in different orientations and how that is implemented. Those details are likely what the new part of the invention is. With patents, it's all in the detail, and headlines like the one in this article are misleading.

Let me know when they start selling an interchangeable lens GoPro. It could have a water proof housing that the lenses attach to and the lenses themselves would be waterproof. That would be a really cool idea.

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